OK, I just finished it... my gods you were right, it was HI-larious! 'Course it's a really easy film to make fun of because it really was written and directed by a four year old, (Kevin's words not mine... but I agree with him).

I didn't see the ending cuz I got a call but I don't know if I can ever watch it again. Jeeezus, what a bad, bad movie. That pod-racing scene really did go on for about 4200 years... I think it is still going on and will never end... goddamn...

OH, and thanks for your support everyone, I really needed it for this one.

Yay, another dollar on the Christmas tree for George! Red 5, going in.

Let us know how you like it I'm interested to hear a non-fanboy's take. I didn't like the STV Rifftrax very much and I'm wondering if that's because I'm not at all into Star Trek.

I loved the STV rifftrax exactly because I am not a Star Trek fan. I actually don't like any sci-fi in which aliens are used. I'm with Carl Sagan when it comes to the whole alien thing. The Universe is actually too huge for any two of the millions of civilizations that must exist out there, to actually meet. It's like one grain of sand in the Sahara being able to randomly hook up with a grain of salt in New Jersey by throwing either one over your shoulder.

Plus, as he always said, there is no way that any sort of humanoid or even symetrically bipedal alien could evolve on another world. Evolutionarily speaking, any life on another world would be completely, radically, different from us in every possible way. Possibly not even visible to our eye as our eyes are only capable of seeing a tiny, tiny, tiny, infintesable spectrum of the light/frequencies/waves that exist in the Universe. Fully 90 percent of all of the matter in the Universe is "dark matter". Stuff we can only detect by its effect on other bodies in the visible Universe!

So, alot of sci-fi makes me roll my eyes and sigh in an exasperated way. Um... sorry about the rant... but this movie just bakes my noodle.

When did the little boy in me die? I killed that whiney, stupid bastard a long time ago, my friends. And he had it coming! YIPPEE!!!

That's a lame and silly excuse. "Finding Nemo" was a kids movie and it was great with good dialogue and a tight plot. "The Incredibles", "Toy Story" pretty much any Pixar film were kids movies and they had good writing that kids and adults could love. Ok? It's not a kid's movie, it's a brain dead's person's movie, I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is.

The Harry Potter books are kids books but they are excellently written. George Lucas, as brilliant as he is, (like the Thomas Edison of our time), is a BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD writer. That's the end of it. He has no idea what the human condition consists of. He is a technical GENIUS, but he relates to machines more than human beings and I think we all know that.

Whew... sorry... this movie just really kills me. I am going to watch "The Lion in Winter" now to show me that human kind is worth something again... Christ, "Manos the Hand of Fate" was bad but it was made for 1000 bucks and made no money. The budget for this piece of total crap could have fed and liberated every man and woman and child in the Sudan but it was wasted on something that enforced the stupidity of all humankind and it made 100 billion dollars thanks to a bunch of man-children.

I'm sorry, I really am full of love for all humans... I just need a quick infusion of literary quality to restore my faith. Keep in mind that my company is a regular and faithful contributor to the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare is my passion and love... so... I just couldn't take this... I need to lie down maybe... please forgive my outburst...

I'm sorry, LadyKenobi, you know how much I respect you, and I am terribly sorry if I offend you, (since your name reflects some kind of affiliation with my own hated Star Wars), please understand that I mean no offense to you-- I just see the outlandishly amazing GENIUS of Lucas being destroyed because he just can't let some other writer develope his brilliant ideas. (The Force, brilliant, Jedi Knights, BRILLIANT, Light Sabers, Brilliant, etc and so on ad infinitum, but why can't he just come up with these great ideas and let someone else flesh them out? As Harrison Ford said, "You can type this shit, George, but you can't SAY it..." Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and even the late great Sir Alec Guiness have all said how much they hated Lucas' dialogue in his movies). It's just so frustrating!

Oh, no, I wasn't offended at all. Everybody has a right to his opinion. I actually quite agree with your comments here:

Quote

I just see the outlandishly amazing GENIUS of Lucas being destroyed because he just can't let some other writer develope his brilliant ideas. (The Force, brilliant, Jedi Knights, BRILLIANT, Light Sabers, Brilliant, etc and so on ad infinitum, but why can't he just come up with these great ideas and let someone else flesh them out? As Harrison Ford said, "You can type this shit, George, but you can't SAY it..." Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and even the late great Sir Alec Guiness have all said how much they hated Lucas' dialogue in his movies). It's just so frustrating!

He's very much a big picture guy, you're right, and as I mention in another post, he likes nothing more than being in an editing bay. He's really not a writer or an actor's director (i.e. the "soul" side of moviemaking), and you've clearly picked up on that.

You might want to join us in the "Phantom Menace--YES!!!!" thread, where we're touching on these very topics. Cheers

Oh, no, I wasn't offended at all. Everybody has a right to his opinion. I actually quite agree with your comments here:

Quote

I just see the outlandishly amazing GENIUS of Lucas being destroyed because he just can't let some other writer develope his brilliant ideas. (The Force, brilliant, Jedi Knights, BRILLIANT, Light Sabers, Brilliant, etc and so on ad infinitum, but why can't he just come up with these great ideas and let someone else flesh them out? As Harrison Ford said, "You can type this shit, George, but you can't SAY it..." Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and even the late great Sir Alec Guiness have all said how much they hated Lucas' dialogue in his movies). It's just so frustrating!

He's very much a big picture guy, you're right, and as I mentnion in another post, he likes nothing more than being in an editing bay. He's really not a writer or an actor's director (i.e. the "soul" side of moviemaking), and you've clearly picked up on that.

You might want to join us in the "Phantom Menace--YES!!!!" thread, where we're touching on these very topics. Cheers

Thank you, so much, you don't know how much that means to me... I will check out that thread. I hate bringing up politics, religion or Star Wars in any forum because it always seems to end in me being really sad and hating the fact that I make other people sad, but lately, in the last few posts that I have been involved with these things have cropped up and I am terribly, terribly sorry if I offend anyone with these posts.

But, really, I should blame Mike Nelson for this, LOL!!! ROFL!!! and all of the other things that the kids say on the intraweb...

I loved the STV rifftrax exactly because I am not a Star Trek fan. I actually don't like any sci-fi in which aliens are used. I'm with Carl Sagan when it comes to the whole alien thing. The Universe is actually too huge for any two of the millions of civilizations that must exist out there, to actually meet. It's like one grain of sand in the Sahara being able to randomly hook up with a grain of salt in New Jersey by throwing either one over your shoulder.

Plus, as he always said, there is no way that any sort of humanoid or even symetrically bipedal alien could evolve on another world. Evolutionarily speaking, any life on another world would be completely, radically, different from us in every possible way. Possibly not even visible to our eye as our eyes are only capable of seeing a tiny, tiny, tiny, infintesable spectrum of the light/frequencies/waves that exist in the Universe. Fully 90 percent of all of the matter in the Universe is "dark matter". Stuff we can only detect by its effect on other bodies in the visible Universe!

So, alot of sci-fi makes me roll my eyes and sigh in an exasperated way. Um... sorry about the rant... but this movie just bakes my noodle.

Everything you said sounds scientifically reasonable, but at the same time should have absolutely no bearing on your enjoyment of scifi. It's science fiction, as in requiring a measured suspension of disbelief.

/commence rant/ And anyway, if I want to get really pedantic about it (And you know I do.), I would argue that Star Wars is not science fiction at all, bit simply fantasy that happens to be set in space, and the very essence of fantasy is ignoring basic rules of the real world in order to tell a parable, ripping good yarn, or in the case of Star Wars, the well-worn universal hero myth. Being unable to enjoy Star Wars because it contradicts Carl Sagan's theories of extraterrestrial life is like not being able to enjoy The Lord Of The Rings because elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, etc. don't exist. Or not enjoying Finding Nemo because fish can't really talk. /end rant/

I loved the STV rifftrax exactly because I am not a Star Trek fan. I actually don't like any sci-fi in which aliens are used. I'm with Carl Sagan when it comes to the whole alien thing. The Universe is actually too huge for any two of the millions of civilizations that must exist out there, to actually meet. It's like one grain of sand in the Sahara being able to randomly hook up with a grain of salt in New Jersey by throwing either one over your shoulder.

Plus, as he always said, there is no way that any sort of humanoid or even symetrically bipedal alien could evolve on another world. Evolutionarily speaking, any life on another world would be completely, radically, different from us in every possible way. Possibly not even visible to our eye as our eyes are only capable of seeing a tiny, tiny, tiny, infintesable spectrum of the light/frequencies/waves that exist in the Universe. Fully 90 percent of all of the matter in the Universe is "dark matter". Stuff we can only detect by its effect on other bodies in the visible Universe!

So, alot of sci-fi makes me roll my eyes and sigh in an exasperated way. Um... sorry about the rant... but this movie just bakes my noodle.

Everything you said sounds scientifically reasonable, but at the same time should have absolutely no bearing on your enjoyment of scifi. It's science fiction, as in requiring a measured suspension of disbelief.

/commence rant/ And anyway, if I want to get really pedantic about it (And you know I do.), I would argue that Star Wars is not science fiction at all, bit simply fantasy that happens to be set in space, and the very essence of fantasy is ignoring basic rules of the real world in order to tell a parable, ripping good yarn, or in the case of Star Wars, the well-worn universal hero myth. Being unable to enjoy Star Wars because it contradicts Carl Sagan's theories of extraterrestrial life is like not being able to enjoy The Lord Of The Rings because elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, etc. don't exist. Or not enjoying Finding Nemo because fish can't really talk. /end rant/

Ah, but, young padawan, you proceed from an all too false, and common, assumption--- and that is that the SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF is the responsibility of the audience. Not so. That is the responsibility of the WRITER. The WRITER creates the suspension of disbelief by creating a series of events that, no matter how unrealistic, can somehow be accepted by his reader/audience.

J.K. Rowling, for instance, has stated many times that she spent months filling up spiral bound notebooks simply annotaing the "RULES" of the Harry Potter universe. This is why when you read her stuff, you can almost believe that another "wizarding" world might exist alongside ours. Simply because she set up the rules in advance. She did her homework and it shows in her writing.

It's not your responsibility to "turn off your brain" to enjoy a movie/book/play, that would be betraying your human nature. It is the responsibility of the writer to "turn ON your brain" to whatever reality to which he/she wants to invite you.

Ah, but, young padawan, you proceed from an all too false, and common, assumption--- and that is that the SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF is the responsibility of the audience. Not so. That is the responsibility of the WRITER. The WRITER creates the suspension of disbelief by creating a series of events that, no matter how unrealistic, can somehow be accepted by his reader/audience.

J.K. Rowling, for instance, has stated many times that she spent months filling up spiral bound notebooks simply annotaing the "RULES" of the Harry Potter universe. This is why when you read her stuff, you can almost believe that another "wizarding" world might exist alongside ours. Simply because she set up the rules in advance. She did her homework and it shows in her writing.

It's not your responsibility to "turn off your brain" to enjoy a movie/book/play, that would be betraying your human nature. It is the responsibility of the writer to "turn ON your brain" to whatever reality to which he/she wants to invite you.

So endeth the lesson...

I have to respectfully disagree with that assessment. I'd say that suspension of disbelief falls about 50/50 on both parties. The audience has to meet the storyteller halfway. To give a personal example, I have a good friend who can't "get into" the Spider-Man movies because he just can't believe a bite from a genetically altered spider could result in such an outlandish outcome. As a longtime Spidey fan, I tried to explain to him that you just have to accept that basic conceit. Since the character has successfully existed in various media for over 40 years, it can't be that hard to accept. So I have to put the blame for his inability to enjoy the Spider-Man movies squarely on my friend's shoulders.

Similarly, while I enjoy Harry Potter, it seems the so-called rules of the magical world he inhabits are no more than say a spell correctly with a proper wand - and a indefined inherent knack for it - and stuff just happens. That goes against everything I've come to understand about how magic would be practiced in the real world (I've got Shaman and Wiccan friends who go on and on about channeling energy and the balance of nature.), but I just accept that that's how it works in Harry Potter's world because it's a long-standing motif of traditional sorcery legend, just as meeting aliens who reflect our human vices and foibles is a motif of traditional scifi.

But it's late and I'm not entirely sure I'm making sense anymore. Cheers.